3 Secret Reasons Your Blog Does Not Need Readers

Blog readers really are an amazing group.  They provide constructive criticism, detailed feedback, pats on the back – all great things to help you and your blog improve.  But, you know what?  You can write a highly successful blog without having a single reader today, tomorrow, or for the next year.  Don’t believe me?  Here are three “secret” reasons that I guarantee will change your mind.

1.   Writing a blog forces you to constantly research your given niche.

Until I started writing a blog on the subject, personal branding was just a thought stuck in the back of my mind that would only occasionally pop to the front.  Now, the game has changed entirely.  I constantly seek relevant articles, search Twitter, and think out loud about what my next blog post might be.

For you current bloggers out there, I am certain the same is true.  Whatever your given subject, you will approach it with more focus and passion if you dedicate a few hours every week to write about it.

Now consider a situation in which you don’t know, or more importantly don’t care, how many readers you have (if any).  Simply out of the necessity and passion to write, your day-to-day interest on your subject would still be amplified.  Constant research and knowledge building will surely help you in your endeavors, even if a set of eyes never reads the words you’ve written.

2. Writing a blog provides an unparalleled outlet to hone your writing skills.

Past Technorati data estimated the total number of bloggers worldwide at 184 million.  That may seem like a big number, but given that there are 6.7 billion people out there, bloggers represent only a small fraction of the population.  If you’re among them, you are one of the few people that actually practices writing on a regular basis.

The ability to write well is a skill that is dying out quickly.  This next generation will think 141 characters is far too long to write on any one subject.  By writing a blog, you exercise a muscle that most never use (past the moment that college diploma hits their fingertips).  Like anything else, writing takes practice, practice, and more practice – something a blog provides, readers or no readers.

3. A blog can be used down the road as proof of authority.

Imagine a situation in which you regularly write kick-ass blog posts for an entire year without ever attaining a single reader.  You see a listing for your dream job, and the role just so happens to mesh perfectly with your blog’s subject.    You submit your resume with a link to your blog, the hiring manager reads it, and she is blown away by your brilliance – you get the job with ease.  Did she care that you never amassed a following? No.  Did she even know?  Probably not.

It is funny that blogs are so closely tied to readership figures.  When I read the newspaper, or a book, I care not how many other folks have read the same piece – I only care about the words on the paper.

Use your blog first as a tool to grow, refine, and exude your authority.  Yes, the more readers the better.  Yes, blog readers may  potentially turn into long-lasting connections.  But, I hope I’ve proven that your blog can be a huge success no matter how many site visitors you happen to attain.

Ryan Rancatore can also be found on his own website, Personal Branding 101, discussing the tools and tactics that will help you build a killer personal brand in 2010 and beyond.

Ryan would love nothing more than to connect with you on Twitter at @RyanRancatore, or on Linkedin, Facebook, or Brazen Careerist.

Finding (or Creating) Your Dream Job

Have you heard those stories about people who follow their passion and by doing so end up finding their dream job?  Yeah, me too, although I never actually thought it would happen to me (not to say that I gave up hope and stopped chasing my passion).

Well, guess what?  It actually did happen to me this past year! Now I want to share my story with you in hopes that it will help inspire you to chase your passion.  The best part… the job I have now didn’t even exist within most companies as recently as six months ago!

I’ve been a recruiter for over 10 years, both on the agency side and the corporate side.  I love networking and connecting with people and I also like keeping updated on the latest trends for great ways to connect with people effectively.  While times and technologies have changed, I have never needed to change any of my recruiting search strategies or methodologies. Instead, I just added new tools to my arsenal and found ways to incorporate them into my overall strategy.  The newest tool in my belt: social media.

I was an early adopter of social media (within my particular team) and I used it to connect with a wide variety of individuals globally, in order to exchange ideas on a variety of topics.  I found this to be a way to expand my network and learn from a much broader group than I was previously exposed and connected to.

One day, I read a blog post that really hit home with me about how I needed to take control of my personal brand and ability to be found on the internet.  That very same day, I signed up for a few new social networking sites in order to connect with others more efficiently, to become more active in the global conversation and (most importantly) to be found.

Through my work, I enjoyed some personal success in identifying, networking with, and hiring candidates through social media. I was truly enjoying utilizing these new avenues to join conversations.  Over time, my company investigated social media for our employee-to-employee messaging.  As this new direction was being considered, I was approached to help lead our global social media recruitment  strategy, including its implementation and execution.  This truly was a dream job opportunity for me and it is something so impactful that I am already finding myself directly affecting my company’s message to the market. 

I have always worked to positively impact my company and convey our brand and message in my daily recruitment activities, but now to be able to do this on a much broader scale is completely humbling, yet energizing; that I was selected to help lead this effort is something that I am incredibly enthusiastic about.  The fact that I was able to expand my field of expertise and responsibilities while staying with the same employer is an added bonus!

My recommendation to all of you is to follow your passion.  Identify what it is that motivates you and will allow you to do your job better and more effectively.  Also, determine how it may impact your day-to-day activities in a positive way so that it is not distracting you from your objectives.  Discuss your objectives with your manager to figure out how you might best accomplish them while increasing your own productivity and that of your team. 

The most important thing to remember is to be active. Sitting around and waiting for that job to fall into your lap is not the optimal strategy here.  Your dream job is out there, but if you don’t take steps to find it, someone else may beat you to it!

5 Ways to “Brand” Out in Your Interviews

One of the most challenging parts of the job search process is breaking through the clutter and getting noticed by employers. This is especially true when it comes to the interview.  While being selected for an interview may mean that you are one of the top candidates that the company would like to investigate further, you are now going up against other top candidates like yourself.  How do you differentiate yourself from the crowd?

Here are five tips from both me and four fellow career experts to help you more effectively stand out, or “brand” out, in your interviews:

1.    Be sure to have your personal brand and pitch ready to communicate to your interviewer(s). Having a one-to-three-word personal brand and supporting pitch not only makes you look more professional, but also makes you more memorable when answering questions like, “Tell me about yourself,” and/or “Why should we pick you?”  It provides you the opportunity to more concisely present your unique and differentiating value and more importantly to be remembered for it.  Your interviewers aren’t going to remember everything you say in your interview, but they are much more likely to remember a strongly-communicated personal brand and how well everything else you said reinforced and supported it. - Chris Perry, CareerRocketeer.com

2.    Did you know that getting a job today is based on 70% presentation and only 30% skills and abilities? In order to help applicants stand out from the hundreds they are competing against for that ONE POSITION, I always coach my clients to bring a “First Impressions Binder” to the interview. This binder showcases your resume, awards, letters of recommendation, bio, any articles or white papers you have written, and the research that you did on the prospective company.  The binder with “view thru” cover allows you to slip a custom cover into the binder with the company’s logo, your name, date, and person with whom you are interviewing. It shows that you can focus on detail, you have supporting documentation and you did the research before showing up for the interview. - Angie Maizlish, WordsImpress.com

3.    You must instill trust by making a personal connection. Interviewees need to connect with their interviewers in order to instill trust.  There are three behaviors that can help interviewees instill trust almost instantly:  (1) make eye contact and try to smile with your eyes, (2) be sincere and, if appropriate, offer compliment that you really mean about the company, why you want to work there, etc., and (3) be a person with whom a conversation is easy (i.e., even though you are possibly nervous, try to avoid looking overly anxious in your body language and speech).  Remember that an interview is still a conversation, an interactive communication between two people and, as humans, trust is critical. - Paula Caligiuri, PaulaCaligiuri.com

4.    My first interview tip is to use stories. Every human being, including hiring managers, loves a good story.  People who tell good stories are memorable and compelling.  So if the interviewer asks, “What is your greatest strength (or weakness)?” or “Why did you get into this line of work?”, answer in the form of a short, one-minute-or-less, story.  In fact, aim for three sentences.  Sentence #1 is the set-up, usually a problem of some kind (“my company was losing money on inventory”).  Sentence #2 is the action or what you did to solve the problem (“I designed a new system to track incoming and outgoing shipments”).  Sentence #3 is the happy ending with you as hero (“after a year our inventory costs went down 50%”).  Your story can be longer than three sentences, but strive for short!   Practice your stories until you can tell them quickly and clearly. - Karen Burns, KarenBurnsWorkingGirl.com

5.    When interviewing with multiple people from the same company separately, do not ask the same questions of each person. They will talk and it will look very unimaginative that you asked the same question as well looking like you can’t think on your feet or make a connection with each individual interviewer. Make each interviewer feel special by asking specific questions to their position or what topic they are talking to you about. Also, come prepared with questions! Sounds basic but so many people don’t do it! At the end of an interview if they ask you if you have any questions, that’s still an interview question. Look smart, ask insightful questions. It will make you look like you are really processing what the interviewer has said and are internalizing this information to determine whether it’s a good fit for you and them. - Jennifer Spencer, Spencer-Group.com

Special thanks to these experts for their contributions!

Chris Perry, MBA is a Gen Y brand and marketing “generator,” a career search and personal branding expert and the founder of Career Rocketeer and Launchpad.

How to Use Our Blog Recommendation Engine to Tap the Blogosphere

To build your personal brand, you should proactively comment on blogs related to your field and interact with bloggers in your industry.

To help you get started, we developed a Blog Recommendation Engine that suggests what blogs you should be reading based on your field. It taps into a variety of authoritative blog sources including Technorati, AllTop, and user generated and expert-reviewed suggestions.

Leaving thoughtful comments on blogs posts establishes yourself as contributing member of your industry. Besides demonstrating your insight, it also connects you to top bloggers in your field and other blog commenters in your niche who can potentially advance your career. Follow our guidelines for leaving effective blog comments to maximize your time spent commenting.

The Blog Recommendation Engine is one part of our Hireability Dashboard, which breaks down the components of your personal brand online and grades the strength of each. It is part of the Niche Involvement section, which tracks your blog comments, blog comments mentioning you, recommended blogs and Twitter. The Visibility section tracks your Google search results, professional profiles, social networks, directories, web 2.0 services to protect your username on, and media related to your name.  The Credibility section tracks your blog, other blogs mentioning you, social bookmarks mentioning you, and news mentioning you. Each section shows you what you should do to create a strong personal brand online, and tracks your progress along the way:

The Next Step

Now it’s time to find out: which blogs should you be commenting on? Create a free Brand-Yourself.com account now and start managing your online reputation with our Hireability Dashboard. See you there, and let us know what you think here.

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